I saw The Da Vinci Code on DVD this weekend, which has at its heart a religious controversy. Coincidentally I started reading Cross Bones by Kathy Reichs a few days ago as well. As always, the Reichs plots focus on bones of some kind, and this book has possible Jesus Christ bones. These plots brought to mind one of my unpublished manuscripts. I had pressure from my critique partners to remove the religious comments, inappropriately-timed of course, of one of my characters. This made me wonder when my little fiction circle decided to go politically correct, as it were. My manuscript is a romance novel. Are we supposed to avoid controversy as romance novelists? Are we afraid of the hate mail I would imagine Dan Brown and Kathy Reichs received by the bag-full? Do they make enough at their publishing level to hire protection from lawyers and publicists that someone like me down at the bottom of the literary food chain cannot?
   On the other hand, we have no problem in romance with bad cops, bad bosses and bad husbands. Aren't we afraid of their hate mail? Of course we have lots of good cops, husbands (maybe not so much good bosses) in romance fiction. Maybe that should protect us. But we have plenty of Christian fiction books too, balancing out my inappropriate characters.
   When, if ever, does romance fiction cross the line? Is it bad taste to bring religion into the characterization of an annoying character, or am I simply playing it too safe? Why is it that these big novelists' controversies are entertainment, and mine are no-nos that aren't worth keeping?
   Food for thought when religion is ever present, especially in this holiday season.